Saturday, February 17, 2007

Who needs truth when you can make up your own?

"Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged." — President Abraham Lincoln.

Problem: Lincoln never said that.

This quote is sometimes used by Iraq war supporters like Diana Irey in her campaign against John Murtha last fall. (To her credit, after learning Lincoln did not say that, Irey retracted the quote and apologized.)

But what's the excuse for the latest abuse of Lincoln and what he did not say by Washington Times columnist, Frank Gaffney, Jr. as pointed out by Keith Olbermann on "Countdown" last night?

Perhaps, to quote Abraham Lincoln again, "Persons who willfully take actions during wartime to discredit those in opposition to war by suggesting they are saboteurs of the effort should be arrested, exiled, or hanged."

NOTE: No, Lincoln did not say that either. Dada just said that. Point being, I admit it here, unlike conservative J. Michael Waller who originated the original misquote but, like the attitude so pervasive in the nation today, is not responsible. As Waller likes to tell us, the quotation marks attributing his quote to Lincoln are the fault of his editor who failed to remove them.

THE BEGINNING IS NEAR

HUH?

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that, you son of a bitch."

— Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, People magazine, 8 April 1974.

"Keep in mind that this planet is no model for rational thought, and that what passes for sanity here is sending chills down the spine of the remainder of the universe." E.T. 101

"An Empire’s power depends on its ability to control the cultural stories and language that shape our collective understanding of our world and our choices as a species. Empire stories induce a kind of cultural trance that conditions us to accept the dominator relations of Empire as just and righteous and to dismiss talk of alternatives as naïve, dangerous, or even sinful." ~ David Korten